Broader market for healthcare services and medical tourism is luring foreign investors to China even when hospitals of the world's second largest economy are struggling to make healthcare available for patients.
"As government moves to overhaul an underfunded public health system, the promise of affordable and accessible care to all Chinese has not stood still," said Renée-Marie Stephano, president of the Medical Tourism Association. "This means patients in China, especially seniors with major-long-term diseases including cancer and diabetes, will be willing to pay a large part of their healthcare expenses themselves."
China has invested about three trillion yuan on healthcare and the government is encouraging consumers – employers fund 40 percent of Chinese medical benefits -- to spend even more.
While Beijing is rolling out a range of initiatives that loosen its grip on state-controlled hospitals and relaxes drug prices, private investors have injected $7 billion into a medical tourism pilot zone.
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